Toy garage and the like



Jan. 4, 1938. D. M. WARREN 2,104,628

TOY GARAGE AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 16, 1934 Patented Jan. 4, 1938 UNITED STATES TOY GARAGE AND THE LIKE Donald M. Warren, West Lafayette, Ind.

Application August 16,

I Claims.

- This invention relates to a toy garage or like structure which is adapted to be packaged in box form and in which the box or a part thereof is adapted to be employed in setting up the structure.

One object is to provide a packageable toy structure of the type referred to which may have associated with it and in the same box, one or more toy vehicles or other articles which are normally used in connection with the toy structure when set up. Another object is to provide a structure which when set up will be exceptionally rigid but which will be easy to assemble and disassemble so that very young children may easily handle the article. A further object is to provide an apron or driveway structure for facilitating movement of vehicles into the garage or like structure. In general it is the object of this invention to provide an improved toy of the type referred to which may be manufactured and sold at low cost.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be understood by reference to the following' specification and accompanying drawing wherein there is illustrated a toy garage structure embodying a selected form of the invention.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective illustrating the packaged form of the article.

Figs. 2 and 3 are end and front elevations respectively.

Fig. 4 is a perspective illustrating a corner portion of the structure in disassembled relation.

Fig. 5 is a plan illustrating a detail of construction of a driveway forming apron, and

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 66 of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawing, the toy garage structure illustrated embodies a base element Ill which constitutes one section, preferably the bottom section of a. box which includes in addition to the section ill, a cover member II. The box base section In is inverted so that the bottom-wall l2 thereof constitutes a floor element and the sides of the box constitute depending side flanges or foundation walls.

Rising from the floor l2 are a back wall l3 and opposite end walls ll-il and a front member l5 which connects the upper portions of the front edges of the end members il-ll. A roof member I6 is also provided.

The end wall members ll-Il are respectively provided with front edge portions II which are foldable to substantially right angular relation to the end wall members to thereby form 1934, Serial No. 740,102

corner wall portions. To facilitate folding, a scored or other fold line l8 may be provided. A tongue structure I! is provided at the lower end of the corner wall portion and said tongue structure embodiesportions 20 and 2i which depend 6 from the end and front portions i4 and I1 respectively. The tongue portions 20 and 2i are integrally connected to the respective wall portions from which they depend and they have adjacent, straight edges integrally connected in 1 continuation of the fold line i8.

The floor portion l2 of the base is provided at each of its respective front corners with an open- .ing 22, preferably of triangular shape as shown in Fig. 4. Said opening is adapted to have the 15 tongue portions 20 and 2i projected therethrough and the respective tongue portions have their respective free edges rounded or otherwise shaped as clearly shown in Fig. 4 so as to provide narrowed portions adjacent the bottom edge 20 of the respective wall portions from which the tongues depend. The tongue, rtions 20 and 2| are of course adapted to be pos tioned with theirfaces against the sides 23 and 24 respectively of the opening 22 and the size of the opening 22 25 is such that the narrowed tongue portions will be snugly received. It will be apparent that because of the shape of the free edges of the tongues, there will be a snap-lock action by which the front corner wall structure will be anchored to the base. 30

The front member i5 is preferably anchored to the front edges of the end walls "-44 by means of similar tongue and triangular opening connections as above described for connecting the wall corner portion to the base. As clearly 35 shown, front member I5 is provided adjacent each end with an opening 25 which is adapted to receive a tongue 26 formed integral with the adjacent end wall it. As clearly shown in Fig.

4, the tongue 26 is cut out of the front wall 40 forming portion I1 and the fold line I8 is interrupted across the width of the base of the tongue so that the latter is not foldable with the portion I'I.

Adjacent its rear edge, each end wall It is 45 further provided with a tongue 21 depending from its lower edge and. adapted to project through a suitably located opening in the floor i2 of the base. The opening for receiving the tongue 2'! is also preferably'shaped to snugly re- 60 ceive and grip the opposite edges of the tongue adjacent the bottom edge of the wall so as to eifectively but detachably anchor the wall to the base.

The rear wall i3 is similarly anchored to the 55 is provided. The apron embodies a drivewayportion 3| and opposite end or side portions 32- 32 which are of triangular formation as clearly I shown in Fig. 5. The said triangular portions are adapted to be folded downwardly from the plane of the driveway portion 3| along scored or other wise formed fold lines such as indicated at 33. The rear edges 34 of the triangular side portions are designed to abut the front side flange of the base element. For anchoring the apron to the base, the said triangular side portions are provided with rearwardly projecting tongues such as 35 which are adapted to be projected through suitably located openings 38 in the said side flange of the base. The tongues 35 are so shaped as to provide narrow portions adjacent the said rear edges 34 and the openings 36 are of such size and formation that the tongue and opening connection 35-36 will constitute a snap-lock detachable connection between the apron and the base.

In the formation of a. box section such as III which is here used as the base of the toy structure, a paper board blank is cut to suitable dimensions and its thickness is partly cut through to form fold lines along which the side flanges may be folded to angular relation with the bottom wall. As a result of such partial cutting through the thickness of the paper board blank, a peripheral ledge 31 is formed when the side flanges are folded downwardly, such ledge being spaced downwardly from the top surface I! of the box section. In Fig. 6, the box section I0 is indicated as being covered with a thin paper covering sheet 38 which is suitably lithographed to represent a tile or other floor construction, such paper covering being applied in the manner in which cardboard boxes are conveniently covered with lithographed labels and the like. The covering sheet 38 does not of course eliminate the presence of the ledge 31 although it does serve to conceal the same. For preventing collapsing of the driveway portion 3| of the apron, said driveway portion is provided with a lip 39 which extends rearwardly beyond the plane of the rear edges 34 of the triangular side portions when the latter are disposed in their normal downwardly folded position. The said lip 39 is adapted to rest on said ledge 31 as clearly shown in Fig. 6, the covering paper 38 readily yielding or being foldable to conform to said ledge formation. The said lip 33 has been found to form an effective means for preventing collapsing of the driveway portion 3| of the apron especially where the toy garage structure is of considerable length and the apron substantially co-extensive with the length of the structure as shown in Fig. 3.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1, the base sec- I tion ID of the toy. garage structure is indicated as forming the lower section of a box which is adapted to contain a plurality of-toy vehicles 40 such as indicated in dotted lines and also the various paper board sections forming the wall, roof and apron of the garage structure. In some instances, depending mainly upon the size of the vehicles to be furnished in connection to the garage structure. the box may be providd with removable side strips 4| which set within the side flanges of the base element II. The side strip 4| may be of the width required to provide sufficient depth for receiving the toy vehicles and also the garage forming paper board elements and in such case, the cover element ll maybe a duplicate oi the base member II. In such a case, the cover member II will of course fit over the projected portions of the removable side strip ll. In other cases where a removable side strip is not required for the purpose of providing depth in the box, the cover member ll may be of such size as to fit over the base member it. It is preferred, however, in the case of small sized garage structures that the height of the side walls of the base element I 0 be not so great that when the structure is set up, the driveway portion of the apron would be so steep as'to preclude satisfactory movement of toy vehicles thereover. Hence in some cases the use of a removable depth providing side strip may be desirable to facilitate packing of the vehicles together with the wall, roof and apron members in the box.

Either box section may, of course, be usedfor the base of the structure but for obvious commercial reasons I prefer to use the bottom section with suitable lithographing as indicated, whereby the top section may be lithographed with suitable advertising or display material.

The described structure is economical to produce in that it involves only simple paper board cutting operations and the resulting structure is highly desirable in that it may be knocked down and conveniently packed for storage purposes and easily set up to form a very rigid play structure. As indicated the entire garage structure is formed of paper board of suitable weight and it will of course be apparent that windows may be provided where desired and that other suitable shapes to effect ornamentation may be utilized.

Because of the effective gripping action of the described and illustrated tongue and opening connection, the parts are rigidly maintained in their set-up or assembled relation while at the same time being readily detachable.

Changes in the described structure may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention the scope of which should be determined by reference to the following claims the same being construed as broadly as possible consistent with the state of the art.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a toy structure of the class described, the combination of a paper board box section comprising a top wall constituting a floor member and downwardly folded side flanges for supporting the floor member at an elevation from a ground surface on which the structure is set up, said side flanges being folded downwardly relative to the floor member along fold lines formed by cutting through part only of the thickness of the paper board whereby there is formed a peripheral ledge around and spaced downwardly from the top surface of the floor member, an apron for facilitating movement of toy closures for the space between said driveway portion and said ground surface and the rear edges of said triangular portions being adapted to abut a side flange of the base, and said driveway portion having a lip extending beyond the plane of the rear edges of said triangular portions and adapted to rest on a portion of said peripheral ledge to prevent collapsing of said driveway portion.

2. In a toy structure ofthe class described, a pair of wall members, one of which is provided with a fold line to permit folding of the member so as to form a comer portion embodying relatively angularly disposed wall portions, a tongue integral with and projecting from the corner edge of one of the corner wall portions in continuation of the plane thereof and cut out of the other corner wall portion, said fold line being discontinued across the width of said tongue so as to preserve the normal stiffness of the wall material in said tongue, the other wall member having an opening for receiving said tongue to connect said wall members.

3. In a toy structure of the class described, the combination of an element having an opening therein, said opening having a pair of relatively angularly disposed intersecting side edges and additional edge portions extending at acute angles from the outer ends of said intersecting edge portions so as to form restricted corners adjacent the outer ends of said intersecting edges, a member having a fold line on which the member is foldable to form integrally connected corner portions of the structure, and tongue portions extending respectively from said corner portions and having substantially straight adjacent edges integrally connected in continuation of the corner fold line of said foldable member, said tongue portions being of such width as to be adapted to be projected through said opening and the outer or free edges of the tongue portions gripped in said restricted opening comers for anchoring the member to said floor element.

4. In a toy structure of the class described, the combination of a base element comprising a side flange portion provided with a pair of openings spaced upwardly from the lower edge of said flange portion, and a floor element supported by said side flange portion at an elevation from a ground surface, an apron for facilitating movement of toy vehicles from said ground surface to said elevated floor element, said apron having a driveway portion and side portions adapted to be folded downwardly, tongues extending from the ends of said side portions in upwardly spaced relation to the outer or free side edges thereof and adapted to enter said flange portion openings for anchoring the apron to the base with the driveway portion in inclined position forming a connecting surface between said floor element. and said ground surface, said flange portion having a shoulder forming upper edge, and said driveway portion having a lip extending therefrom for engaging said shoulder without projecting materially above or materially overlapping said floor element, said lip and flange portion thereby serving to prevent sagging of said driveway portion intermediate its sides.

5. In a toy structure of the class described, the combination of an element having an opening therein, a member having a fold line on which the" member is foldable to form integrally connected corner portions of the structure, and tongue portions extending respectively from said corner portions and having adjacent edges extending respectively in continuation of the corner fold line of said member, said tongue portions being relatively foldable as an incident to folding of said member and being adapted to be projected through said opening in the floor element, the fold formed edge of the tongue structure being substantially straight and the opposite free edges being humped intermediate the length of the tongue structure, said opening being of such shape and size as to permit said humped tongue structure -to be forced therethrough whereby, when the innermost portion of the tongue is positioned in said opening, the

humped portion of the tongue will serve to resist withdrawal of the tongue from the opening, said member being thereby attached to said element.

6. In a toy structure of the class described, the combination of a base comprising a paper board, box-like section having a floor-forming portion and depending side flanges serving to support said floor at an' elevation from a surface on which the base may be placed, said base being formed from a blank which is scored partially through its thickness along the lines on which marginal portions of the blank are folded to depending flange-forming relation to said floor, said scoring serving to provide a ledge along the upper edges of said flanges in downwardly spaced relation to the top of said floorforming portion, and an apron for forming a connecting surface between the floor-forming portion of said base and the surface on which said base may be placed, said apron having a lip adapted to rest on said ledge of the base so as to be thereby supported, and means for attaching said apron to the base to maintain the apron and base in cooperative relation.

'7. In a toy structure of the class described, a pair of members, one of which is provided with a fold line to permit folding of the member so as to provide relatively angularly disposed portions. a tongue integral with and projecting from one of said portions in continuation of the plane thereof and cut out of the other of said portions, said fold line being discontinued across the width of said tongue so as to preserve the normal stiffness of the material of the member in the part thereof which connects said tongue with the portion from which the tongue extends,

the other member having an opening for receiving said tongue to connect said members.

DONALD M. WARREN. 

